Extra Services

Record crowds at Eisa Festival, Americans miss event

Date Posted: 2001-09-21

The 46th All Okinawa Eisa Festival was held Sunday at Koza Sports Park. A total of thirteen teams were invited to take part from all over Okinawa. The festival was postponed for one week because of typhoon Nari.

According to police estimate, 230,000 people enjoyed the two-day festival that included the Orion Beer festival. The main stage of the Eisa Festival was filled to the brim with people, and spectators were absorbed in the rhythms of sanshin, singing and drum beating. People lived up to the music as the performances on stage proceeded, and the whole audience reached its climax at the last Kachashi dance.

For the team from the Okinawa City International Association, twenty American members missed the performance and stayed on base because of the terrorist threat caused by the attack in New York and Washington D.C.. The rest of the members performed with mourning badges, and dance as they prayed for the repose of victimís souls.